False Rumor: Costco Photo Labs shutting down !

<p><b>Subject line modified by moderator. Note that this information is incorrect</b><p>Today, Friday, July 24, I was at the Sequim store. their large format printer was down so I could not get a couple 20x30 poster boards printed. From the staff there I learned that most, and possibly all of the photo labs are shutting down next Friday, the end of July. I have written to the company to find out how bad it may be for people using their labs.</p>

<p>At issue is the fact that a lot of the stores never made a profit in the photo departments. A situation I knew about a long time back. This may improve the work flow for other surviving professional photo labs. However, the costs for printing will be a lot higher for photographic printing.</p>

<p>CHEERS...Mathew</p>

<p>Their webpage doesn't give much hope either.... http://www.costcophotocenter.com/</p>

<p>There are decent, reasonably priced online labs like AdoramaPix, but of course it's not as convenient as driving to your local store.</p>

<p>It should be noted, according to the website, that the "shutting down" is temporary and only pertains to online access.</p>

<p>Their web site, in plain English, explains exactly what's going on. This is about a third party's possibly insecure software, and Costco is happy to help you with walk-up business in the meantime. </p>

<p><strong>is gradually causing labs processing film</strong><br>

<strong>to become harder and harder to find. <br /></strong><br>

<strong>after wal mart ( according to posts) <br /></strong><br>

<strong>stopped returninhg nmagatives<br /></strong><br>

<strong>I ingnored them as a source.<br /></strong><br>

<strong>wjem I asked<br /></strong><br>

<strong>a;l; the premium- meaninmg expensive-<br /></strong><br>

<strong>pl;aces are mentioned.<br /></strong><br>

<strong>a search yielded mostly high prices labs.<br /></strong><br>

<strong>it seems film is really going away.<br /></strong><br>

<strong>yes I have digital cameras.<br /></strong><br>

<strong>and quite a good one from another p netter.<br /></strong><br>

<strong>but I still like film and film cameras.<br /></strong></p>

Here in the Seattle region, Costco stopped developing film 2-3 years ago, but the Costcos I frequent seem to be active in

printing digital photos. We are fortunate to have at least two fully functional camera stores, one the largest on the west

coast, and many places to get film developed. I will be checking out how well Fred Myer functions. My problem with

drugstores is that when they copy the film photos to a CD, the file sizes are small compared with Costco. I feel for you

living in Sequim. The Olympic peninsula is beautiful and I have a son and grandchildren living in Port Townsend, but i

don't like being dependent on ferry boats. I live in Bellevue. We have traffic problems depending on time of day, but

nothing like Seattle.

<p>By the end of the summer, all Costco One Hour labs in the LA region will stop developing/printing film. Digital will of course be available as will the other services offered such as passport photos, ink cartridge refills etc.</p>

<p>Here is an update. It appears the labs that are not turning a profit will go away. The Sequim, WA. store is being shut down next Friday. Other labs are being downsized and receiving new equipment. So for now, there will be Digital Photo services available at some of the stores. This information came from the Silverdale store.</p>

<p>The email reply from the company was worthless for accurate information on the above.</p>

<p>It is a PIA for me as the closest store with photo printing will be in Silverdale. Sequim was 1/2 hour away, Silverdale is an hour and a half. It will definitely limit my printing on the sturdy poster board stock.</p>

<p>It would be nice if they offered the 24 x 36 poster boards via the photo labs. At present this size board is only offered via the photocopy centers. The store in Tukwila near the Southcenter Mall has one of the photocopy centers and I have run a couple of these large boards there. The only issue I have with them is the staff do not seem to know if the printing is color managed like the photo labs.</p>

<p>The Tukwila store has color management. Profiles are available here - http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/Profiles/Washington_profiles.htm#WA</p>

<p>Both Tustin, CA stores have very busy digital photo processing departments. While I process my own (serious) images a home, Costco is a fantastic place to dump all the images from your smart phone and get reasonable quality prints. BTW, just came back from a trip to Southern Iceland and my new iPhone 6 is fantastic. I suspect the group leader was a little frustrated because all the participants were shooting with their DSLRs / mirrorless cameras and then re-shooting the scenes with their smartphones. Of course those images could be instantly sent back home and even to a Costco Photo lab so you had your prints before you even stepped off the plane back home. Advantage, Smart Phone. </p>

<p>>>> ... Costco is a fantastic place to dump all the images from your smart phone and get reasonable quality prints.<br>

<br>

It's much more than that as local Costco photo centers offer 16x20 and 20x30 prints from Epson 7000 series professional printers.</p>

<p>Costco labs are considered to be an ancillary (I hope I'm spelling this correctly) dept which means they do not make a profit but they are there to keep people coming back into the warehouses where they will likely shop and eventually renew their membership while they are there. The Costco I work at is one of the last few in the LA region that still does film but that is ending at the end of Aug which was pushed up from the end of Dec. As other Costco labs in our area stopped film we picked up their business. We had an amazing avalanche of film come into our lab (where I sometimes help out.) Such was the volume that we had to take peoples orders for several days ahead. Then our machine that develops the film kept on breaking down. Our manager has been able to keep it up and running but the writing was already on the wall. No more film by the end of Aug.</p>

<p>I just drove all the way to Costco Marina del Rey to get some rolls developed, I'd been there before and it was great. When I start pulling rolls out of my bag the lady at the desk tells me they lost their machine three weeks ago. I went out to the parking lot and called the Inglewood and Montclair locations I'd also used before, no luck there either.<br>

Marc, is your location still processing? August isn't done yet! *fingers crossed*</p>